Our usually-dormant landline spluttered into life the other evening with a call from Sky (and yes, I was on my laptop on the sofa ignoring the call as per the Vodafone ad - luckily one of the kids answered). The deal being offered was $46/month reduced from $94/mth with a 12 month term and break fee.

I support the other team (Freeview/Quickflix/TAB Watch&Bet) so I hung up pretty quick, but on reflection for the benefit of others I should have found out more details.

According to my calculations that would have been basic plus the standard sport and movie packages?

I signed up just over a month ago and it was free install and 2 premium channels for free for 12 months. I took movies and sport. Can't remember the special number to quote but i did write in on greekzone somewhere. will have a look later on. I also added on mysky, i pay about $61 a month in total.

These types of promos can put current customers offside. If they can offer that sort of deal for new cusomters, why can't they offer deals for existing ones, as it costs a lot more to get a new customer than to retain existing ones and keep them happy.

If I had normal sky, i'd cancel and wait for a deal, after 3 months of being canceled.

Then when the term contract is up, do it again.

I've got mysky which paid upfront so no monthly rental on mysky part would lose that if canceled.

I got to cancel movies soon, as it must be getting close to offering a deal on those, and usually the condition is if you had it on after 20th previous month can't get deal. It should be the other way round cause if you have them on month after, month then have seen most of them, so getting less value.

Snap! I'm also an irritated current subscriber. It irritates the pants off me when I find that my reward for 9+ years of unbroken subscription means I get rewarded with dramatically worse terms than a new sign-up. This may actually make me cancel my sub. I have over 3-400 hours of unwatched recorded material backed up anyhow, so prob wouldn't even really notice it was gone for at least 3 months.

JimmyH: It irritates the pants off me when I find that my reward for 9+ years of unbroken subscription means I get rewarded with dramatically worse terms than a new sign-up.

This is where there is a concept of loyalty that doesn't really exist. As long as sky have provided you a service and you've paid on time, you are square. They don't owe you anything as you settle the arrangement every bill cycle. If it was written into the contract that you'd get long service bonuses etc then yes, but it's not.

JimmyH: It irritates the pants off me when I find that my reward for 9+ years of unbroken subscription means I get rewarded with dramatically worse terms than a new sign-up.

This is where there is a concept of loyalty that doesn't really exist. As long as sky have provided you a service and you've paid on time, you are square. They don't owe you anything as you settle the arrangement every bill cycle. If it was written into the contract that you'd get long service bonuses etc then yes, but it's not.

I think that is the way many business now work. Banks for instance don't seem to care that much about how long you have been with them these days.

JimmyH: It irritates the pants off me when I find that my reward for 9+ years of unbroken subscription means I get rewarded with dramatically worse terms than a new sign-up.

This is where there is a concept of loyalty that doesn't really exist. As long as sky have provided you a service and you've paid on time, you are square. They don't owe you anything as you settle the arrangement every bill cycle. If it was written into the contract that you'd get long service bonuses etc then yes, but it's not.

Understand all that - I didn't say I was entitled (morally, contractually or otherwise), I just said that I was annoyed. I doubt I would be the only one, esp if this becomes widely known among their subscriber base. While it may be legal, needlessly annoying your long-term customer base isn't always a sensible thing to do, and retaining good customers is at least as important as getting new ones for most businesses.....

My bank did something like this, but when I went in and said "right, close all my accounts please" mysteriously all of the things they had been unable to do were able to be done on the spot, with a few more sweeteners thrown in (*). iHug jerked me around to, and I closed and account of long standing as a consequence. About two months after I closed it a sales droid called, effectively offering me access to the deal that they wouldn't offer me when I threatened to move, if I came back. Insult, meet injury......

* In fact, I must have got on to a customer retention list. For over a year, they phoned me once a month to see if I was happy with the service I was getting, whether I was still considering moving, and whether there was anything else they could do for me. That's far more sensible than Sky.

I had this same problem with the Dompost. I was a subscriber for over a decade, yet they were offering half price deals to new customers. So I cancelled my subscription, and a few months later they phoned offering a half price sub. I signed up, but unfortunately they were unable to locate my mailbox to deliver it, it ended up on the footpath where passers picked it up. So I ended up canceling it when my half price contract ended. They have since also tried to sign me up to another half price deal, but they say OSH prevents them getting out of their vehicle to put it in my letter box so I am no longer a subscriber.